SPELL(1)						      General Commands Manual							  SPELL(1)

NAME

       spell, sprog - find spelling errors

SYNOPSIS

       spell [ options ] ...  [ file ] ...

       sprog [ options ] [ -f file ]

DESCRIPTION

       Spell  looks  up  words	from the named files (standard input default) in a spelling list and places possible misspellings--words not sanc-
       tioned there--on the standard output.

       Spell ignores constructs of troff(1) and its standard preprocessors.  It understands these options:

       -a     Label each line of output with its address in the input, in the notation of acme(1) and sam(1).

       -b     Check British spelling.

       -v     Print all words not literally in the spelling list, with derivations.

       -x     Print, marked with every stem as it is looked up in the spelling list, along with its affix classes.

       As a matter of policy, spell does not admit multiple spellings of the same word.  Variants that follow general  rules  are  preferred  over
       those  that  don't,  even  when	the  unruly  spelling is more common.  Thus, in American usage, `modelled', `sizeable', and `judgment' are
       rejected in favor of `modeled', `sizable', and `judgement'.  Agglutinated variants are shunned: `crewmember' and `backyard' cede  to  `crew
       member' and  `back yard' (noun) or `back-yard' (adjective).

FILES

       /sys/lib/amspell
	      American spelling list

       /sys/lib/brspell
	      British spelling list

       /bin/aux/sprog
	      The actual spelling checker.  It expects one word per line on standard input, and takes the same arguments as spell.

SOURCE

       /rc/bin/spell
	      the script

       /sys/src/cmd/spell
	      source for sprog

SEE ALSO

       deroff(1)

BUGS

       The heuristics of deroff(1) used to excise formatting information are imperfect.
       The spelling list's coverage is uneven; in particular biology, medicine, and chemistry, and perforce proper names, not to mention languages
       other than English, are covered very lightly.

																	  SPELL(1)